MSS: Sergio Lopez

Sergio Lopez has grown as a coach this year, from guiding his boys' team to a second-place finish in the Swimming World Magazine national high school rankings to helping Ryan Murphy emerge as a top backstroke talent. He talks about Murphy's potential, how the boys and girls at Bolles will fare this season and what he experienced as head coach for the USA at the FINA junior world championships.

Show Transcript: (Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Peter Busch: This is the Morning Swim Show for Wednesday, September 21st, 2011. I'm your host Peter Busch. In the FINIS monitor today we'll talk to Sergio Lopez. He's the head swim coach of the Bolles School. They're in the middle of their high school season. Sergio joins us right now in the FINIS monitor from Jacksonville, Florida. Coach, welcome back to the Swim Show. How're you doing?

Sergio Lopez: Good. Thanks for having me.

Peter Busch: You guys got edged out in the Swimming World high school rankings last year on the boys side, second place to Hershey, who had David Nolan, who probably could have won the whole thing by himself. But heck of a year last year and I hear you have a pretty darn good team this year on both boys and girls.

Sergio Lopez: Yeah, you know, I think so. I think we have -- yeah, we're very lucky we have a good group of boys and girls. I think last year getting second was a good thing for us. We had a better team in the men's side. We didn't swim that well in November. Relays were not that good but I was excited that we got second. I think this year our boys and girls are gonna be very good.

Peter Busch: All right. We know the headliner is Ryan Murphy. I mean, this kid is the real deal. Tell us about how he's doing right now.

Sergio Lopez: I think he's doing pretty well. He's been training very well. He was selected to go to the Pan Ams so he's starting to think a little bit about that meet and getting some experience with the national team. But he's -- I think on tracking to swimming very fast. He trains very well and he's very thoughtful. He has a very good group of teammates that help him out a lot in practice. So I think he would do very well. He's gonna swim very well this year. He's not gonna be shaved or tapered for the high school state meet this year so it's gonna be a little bit tricky. But I think he'll do very well.

Peter Busch: Do you think there's any chance Ryan makes the Olympic team next year?

Sergio Lopez: Well, you know, there's a chance of everything happening in this world, you know. I think you just gotta believe. I think we're training for him to swim the best he can, you know, once -- the first step is to be able to get in the top eight and then if you're there, anything can happen. Now, we have to be realistic. We're talking about beating people like Ryan Lochte, Tyler Clary, Nick Thoman, Rex Tulius, all these guys. So, you know, but you gotta believe and you gotta dream, no?

Peter Busch: Who else is on the team this year that we're gonna get to know their name here pretty soon you think?

Sergio Lopez: Well we have a good group of boys and girls. You know, we have a girl, Ashley Nighty, she -- I wouldn't be surprised if she makes the junior national team this year. She's a very good distance swimmer, mid distance, good breaststroker. We have a boy, couple of boys, Ted Alesandro and Martes Martini, that I think will swim very well. We have another boy, Joseph Schooling this summer. He swam very well. He wasn't in shape at the world championship and still won 54.0 and the 100 fly and he's gonna go 1:58. He's only sophomore high school. Even though he's a little bit older, like he's only a sophomore in high school. So we have a very good group of kids.

Peter Busch: How was -- you're the head coach for the world junior team for the U.S.?

Sergio Lopez: That was once in a life time experience. I was very, I don't know, I was very surprised when I got a call and they offered me the chance to be the coach. I learn a lot. It's kind of a, not intimidating, but, you know, having to go there and lead a group of very talented coaches and very talented swimmers, but I enjoyed it a lot. All the coaches were great and I learn a lot. I think it's gonna make me, hopefully, a better manager for the coaches here both and, hopefully, a better coach.

Peter Busch: You're a native of Spain. Spain doesn't really do much on the international swimming scene. Is there not much of a focus on swimming in your native country?

Sergio Lopez: Well, I think the junior level, they do a very good job. We've always -- the country always had problems with senior level swimming and we don't have any system where swimmers can go to college and train at a high level and get an education. So that's a big problem. And also the politics is -- now, they're changing. I think in the next few years you're gonna see some very good Spanish swimmers at the international scene. But up until now the politics are kinda bad, and when the politics get into the middle of the sports, you're done. So they need to change them…

Peter Busch: Because it had a lot of good stuff going for it. I mean, it's, you know, it's a big country, very populated. It's got a lot of coastal lines of people, a lot of people are natural swimmers. But, you know, we see France moving up in the world rankings, we see even the U.K., but not much from Spain.

Sergio Lopez: Yeah, I think it will change. So you'll see in the next few years I think it's gonna move up. If you look at the junior level, Spain is probably one of the best countries out there. It's just that the problem of making the jump to the senior level. And I think the politics and the people running many things, you know, like the federations or the clubs, I don't think they have the right mndframe. It could be better.

Peter Busch: Well, it was great to see you coaching for the U.S. That must have been a special feeling for you. I know you're proud to be an American, not to repeat any famous songs or anything like that. But good to see you coaching for the U.S. and I know you're doing a great job down there at Bolles.

Sergio Lopez: Thank you very much. It's been a privilege for me and, hopefully, you know, I can do it a couple more times.

Peter Busch: Serge, good luck this season. Thanks.

Sergio Lopez: Thank you very much for having me.

Peter Busch: All right, that's Sergio Lopez joining us in the FINIS monitor from the Bolles School. That's it for today's show. I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.